The Chargers kept Melvin Ingram off the open market Monday afternoon when they put the franchise tag on the outside linebacker, a move the team announced Monday night.

The tag sets Ingram’s 2017 salary at about $15.3 million, nearly double his $7.75-million hit on the 2016 salary cap.

Previous to get the tag from the Chargers was wide receiver Vincent Jackson in 2011.

The Chargers are still in position to seek a multi-year deal with Ingram.

Because it’s a non-exclusive tag, Ingram can negotiate with other teams; but, there’s a poison pill attached: If he receives a contract offer, the Chargers will have the right to match it. If the Chargers choose not to match, the team would receive two first-round draft picks from the team that signs him.

Winners to the deal

Ingram secures not only a big raise but continuity. He is set to play a sixth consecutive year with the Chargers, who took him 18th overall in 2012 as the final first-round pick of the A.J. Smith era.

Joey Bosa and other Chargers front defenders regain one of the NFL’s better pass rushers and a veteran who became a more vocal leader the past two years.

In the upcoming draft, reaching for a pass-rusher just became harder to do.

Along with Bosa, who worked effective stunts and games with Ingram last season, Jason Verrett may be the biggest winner among Chargers teammates.

Like Ingram through three NFL seasons, he is a former first-round draftee who lost a high number of games to injury but is under Chargers control for two more years.

Ingram found a health groove the past two seasons, playing all 32 games, and so increased his negotiating leverage. Verrett, who has missed half of the team’s 48 games over his three seasons, stands to command a big second contract if he can stay on the field.

Fitness trainer David Alexander can point to Ingram’s success as well. Following the 2014 season, Ingram hired him to overhaul his body.

Alexander revamped Ingram’s diet in addition to training him in Miami. The player lost 20 pounds, and improved his football performance.

"Being at 260 or 265, 266, wasn't working, really," Ingram said in May 2015. "I felt quick but I kept getting injured. You've got to nitpick at your own body, your own self, your own game. ... I felt like playing lighter would be a better thing for me. The lighter you are, the less stress it is on your body, the less stress it is on your knees, your hips, your joints or your ankles, your toes -- everything."

Flowers improved his fitness last offseason — when, inspired by Ingram, he enlisted Alexander — but concussions limited the 31-year-old to six games in 2016.

A scarcity of effective pass-rushers existed before the Chargers secured Ingram. The price just went up for the Colts and other NFL teams that need edge men who can affect the passer. Having more cap space and a more favorable state tax climate than the Chargers, some of those teams would’ve had advantages over the Bolts in an open-market competition for Ingram.

Neutral

It remains to be seen how Ingram will fare in the “4-3” scheme of new coordinator Gus Bradley. The change figures to be minor. The Chargers ran similar designs, and versatility is one of Ingram’s strengths.

Ingram, who will turn 28 in April, had eight sacks last season and has 18.5 sacks over the past two seasons.

A $15.3-million salary points to a belief that Ingram will get to double digits in sacks next season, matching his 2015 season. Erratic finishing has kept Ingram from joining the elite ranks of edge rushers, and breaking that habit won’t be easy so deep into a career. Bosa quipped that his veteran teammate left a double-digit total of sacks on the field last season.

Ingram’s backup, Jeremiah Attaochu, is entering his walk year. Injuries have limited him in his first and third seasons. Attaochu won’t be 24 until next January. If he can stay healthy, he stands to set up a big payoff next offseason.